Investigating the factors affecting smart transportation mobile applications adoption in the sultanate of Oman

Abstract

The transportation condition in developing countries generally and in Oman particularly is characterized by inadequate public transportation, Inefficient transportation modes and Limited access to clean transportation. This condition has resulted in profound challenges in the transportation sector. One of the leading transportation problems that have existed for a long time is traffic congestion. This further caused an increment in the travelling costs, waiting time for passengers, and late arrivals for work, schools, and businesses. Also, most of the central areas in cities face a high demand for parking slots in which drivers spend a reasonable amount of time searching for parking space which can be compensated by money. Moreover, transportation decisions directly influence land use by reducing open areas such as parks and wildlife. The implementation of the new smart transportation technologies, including smart mobile applications, in addressing these urban transportation challenges through offering better traffic management, enabling automatic fee collections, ensuring safe driving, reducing trips via private cars, and providing cost-effective and simply accessible flexible transportation modes contributes to enhancing the cities’ ecological condition, presenting a healthier style of living. Smart transportation services and smart mobile applications implementation involves troves of smart technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and big data. Therefore, the public adoption and acceptance of smart services and smart mobile applications in smart transportation are vital to reduce congested traffic and improve quality of life. Yet, most of these services and applications are relatively new, with limited data exploring the extent of end user's acceptance of smart city services, especially in developing countries. Therefore, this thesis explored factors affecting citizens’ acceptance of smart transportation mobile applications in Oman to enhance the successful implementation of these smart applications. The majority of technology acceptance models have been developed and evaluated in developed countries. It would be imprudent to assume that these frameworks can be universally applicable among all nations, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, the latest UTAUT2 model was used to develop a model which was further extended and expanded in two ways to better address the developing nation context such as Oman. Firstly, an in-depth literature review on the smart city, smart transportation and technology acceptance studies revealed two new constructs: trust and satisfaction. Later, interviews with the smart transportation services providers also introduced two unique variables: awareness and former practice. A quantitative study was conducted on 383 Omani citizens for model validation. The finding indicates that only social influence, habit, and former practice directly influence Omani citizens’ behavioural intentions to adopt smart transportation mobile applications in the Omani context. The results represent a valuable contribution and a sign of progress for the literature on Information Technology acceptance, smart cities, and smart transportation. Also, provide recommendations for smart city services providers to improve the acceptance of smart transportation mobile applications.